FortiManager instances deployed on the Azure platform

FortiManager instances deployed on the Azure platform (regardless of version) may lose all data—including configuration, logs, and reports—if the VM is deallocated and subsequently reallocated.

This issue can occur when the VM is deallocated through Azure-level operations (e.g., Azure portal, CLI, or automation). For example, this may happen when an Azure administrator changes the VM SKU (e.g., from Standard_D16_v3 to Standard_D32a_v4), or when the VM is manually stopped (deallocated) from the Azure portal.

To minimize the risk of data loss, it is strongly recommended to:

• Perform regular backups of configuration and data via the GUI or native CLI commands on FortiManager.

• Shut down the FortiManager instance, if required, only from within the FortiManager system itself rather than through Azure-level controls.

• Before performing any upgrade or modification:

Run execute lvm info to verify disk composition and ensure no Azure temporary disk is included in LVM, For example:

Disk 1: 10 TB, Disk 2: 6 TB, ...

If all listed disks were explicitly added by the FortiManager admin, this indicates that no temporary disk is part of LVM and the upgrade is considered safe.

If an unexpected disk is detected (e.g., smaller system disk such as ~128 GB), it is likely the Azure temporary disk. In this case, perform a full backup before proceeding with the upgrade.

If issues occur after the upgrade:

• Run execute format disk to rebuild LVM,

• Use execute restore to recover data from backup.

The possible root cause may be as follows:

Prior to version 7.4.2, the system assumed sdb was always the Azure temporary disk and excluded it from LVM. In certain corner cases, a different device (e.g., sda) may have been incorrectly added to LVM. After upgrading, the existing LVM metadata persists on disk. When the VM is later deallocated and reallocated, Azure replaces the temporary disk, causing LVM initialization to fail due to stale metadata. As a result, any data previously stored on the temporary disk is lost.